1940년대 이세진의 제주불교혁신운동

Abstract

The thesis tries to reveal the forgotten facts of Jeju history Through the life of a buddhist monk, named Lee Se-jin, who lived from 1910 to 1949 by considering not only the modern historical stream of Jeju buddhism connected with Jeju people’s lives but also the reform of Jeju buddhism intensely developed in the current of the times Lee Se-jin was born in the year of Japanese Annexation of Korea and died in 1949. As his short 40-year life shows how the modern Jeju Buddhism was distorted, it must be a good example for studying Jeju Buddhism to light up his life. Of his significant achievements, the meaningful thing to the history of Korean Buddhism as well as that of Jeju buddhism is that he tried to educate buddhist monks in Jeju Gangwon(an educational institution of buddhism) for the first time. In the Seogwaneum temple, he led the reform of Jeju Buddhism that started in cooperation with monks and the residents. Lee Se-jin’s revolutionary thoughts were influenced by the modern Seonnong Buddhism which was continuously observed in his life from childhood up until he became a buddhist priest. The Seonnong Buddhism was a practical buddhism which aimed at taking part in the living of the masses. It was also a reform of buddhism that intended to find solutions of things in collaborated lives of monks and the masses by inspiring them with ascetic exercises through labor under the impartial productive structure. Lee related The Seonnong Buddhism with a traditional Gangwon which succeeds to the spirits of Korean Buddhism. That enabled him to found and operate a Gangwon, an educational institution, and a Gongjang, a productive system, within one temple together. This activity can be considered as quite unique type of the reform movement of buddhism that was unparalleled in the established buddhism world. The Seogwaneum temple, the practical space of the reform, was burned down by the punitive force in January, 1949 during the Dopyeong Massacre. In July, the temple was closed right after one monk buried the image of Buddha under the ground at the news that Lee was shot dead. Unfortunately, Lee’s reform was blocked by Jeju 4.3 Uprising and disappeared into history along with plenty of traces of Jeju Buddhism. As stated above, this paper tries to describe Lee’s movement frustrated by Jeju 4.3 Uprising. The study on the movement can be considered as a basic material clarifying the identify of the present Jeju Buddhism, the relationship of the movement with the history of Korean Buddhism, and the concrete tendency of the revolutionary period of Korean society.